Dyaus Pita

by Stephen T. Naylor

Dyaus or Dyaus Pita was the Sky Father of Indian myth. His counterpart was Prthivi, the Earth Goddess, and the two of them were originally one entity called Dyavaprthivi. He was the father of Indra. In one form, he is seen as a bull, reddish in color, and whose bellowing is the thunder. He is also seen as a black steed covered in pearls. In the latter representation he is the night, with the pearls as the stars.

Dyaus, like his Greek counterpart Cronus, is slain by his own son. Indra grabs him by the foot and pulls him out of the sky to fall to his death.